Superintendent Mark Madson wrote about the same concern that Clement feels as she home-schools her 10-year-old quadruplets: Will noise from a 1.5-million-square-foot data center proposed on 410 acres across the street disrupt children’s education?<\/p>\n
“There is a low humming that that you can’t measure by decibels,” said Clement, whose home is in South Whitehall Township, Lehigh County.<\/p>\n
“Noise & vibration” was listed first in a slew of concerns about the data center – dubbed “Project Atlas” – that Madson put in a letter to the township in May.<\/p>\n
“Low-frequency data center noise easily penetrates building walls and travels hundreds of feet,” said the letter, which was obtained by a resident via a Right-to-Know request and shared with The Center Square.<\/p>\n
As the data center boom continues unabated in Pennsylvania and the nation, noise levels have become a major point of friction. Lawsuits have been filed. And in South Whitehall, a township-funded “sound propagation study”<\/a> recently was finished.<\/p>\n The study found that at night, predicted sound from the proposed data center exceeded the measured existing ambient sound levels by 30 decibels – which “is generally perceived to be eight times louder.”<\/p>\n Parkland’s 3,200-plus student body is present when school is in session. But residents like Clement and her family will be near the data center 24\/7.<\/p>\n Besides the noise, she is worried about traffic, as well as a seemingly abrupt proposal to install public water service in the area, now served by wells.<\/p>\n ‘Quiet as a conversation’<\/p>\n In an email responding to written questions, a spokeswoman for Project Atlas developer Edged U.S. referred to the project website<\/a>.<\/p>\n There, under the headline “Quiet operations” it states, “Noise levels less than 54 dB at property lines, as quiet as a conversation.”<\/p>\n It addresses other concerns. It claims “zero water used for daily cooling operations” because of a “closed-loop” cooling system; that it will become the largest taxpayer in Lehigh County; and will have “significantly less traffic than warehouses, logistics, or freight-heavy developments.”<\/p>\n Many locals in the community just northwest of Allentown are not buying it.<\/p>\n The entrance to the campus of Parkland High School in South Whitehall Township, Pennsylvania, where a data center has been proposed for property across the street.\u00a0Photo: Ford Turner \/ The Center Square<\/p>\n At least 600 people jammed a meeting about the proposal several weeks ago. A well-organized opposition group has formed. Republican state Sen. Jarrett Coleman, who represents the area, said, “It’s not the right fit.”<\/p>\n The tussle is one of many playing out across the state<\/a> in data center-targeted communities. They continue even as state lawmakers are in a multi-month recess.<\/p>\n Data center opposition, however, appears to be flourishing.<\/p>\n Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, a Republican, last week directed that audits be conducted before any more data center projects advance. About three weeks earlier, Democratic New York Gov. Kathy Hochul put in place a temporary moratorium<\/a>.<\/p>\n In Pennsylvania on Thursday, Democratic Sen. James Malone of Lancaster County – saying “We don’t have time to waste” – publicly demanded the Republican-controlled state Senate be called back to Harrisburg to vote on data center moratorium legislation.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
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